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] Date Posted:Fri, Feb 11 2011, 21:45:36 GMT
I am at present reading ASTW for the first time and I've just started chapter 9. I find myself resenting any interruption -- say work, cooking supper, or sleep -- that keeps me from the glorious pages of Jamie O'Neill's book. I've not felt this way about a novel for a very, very long time.So, many thanks Mr. O'Neill ! I saw in the posts someone mention 'The Charioteers by Mary Renault, which excited me, as I have thought about that book a bit while reading ASTB. I read Miss Renault's book as a teenager and could only read a few pages at a time, being overcome by emotion and tears . I am pretty much back there right now in spirit. Being of Irish Catholic stock myself, ASTB has reminded me again of all the pains and joys involved in finding one's path -- the inner battles with what the Church teaches -- what my parents taught -- while trying to find love and acceptance. Maybe I'm not articulating my feelings that well today and maybe nobody will even see this post of mine, but I just felt the need to comment and to discover what others had to say about this grand book.[
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Date Posted:Mon, Feb 14 2011, 23:11:56 GMT
I first read this amazing Irish stew of a book in 2002, and no small part of my ongoing joy in it has been talking with and listening to others of discerning taste and ear for language. All blather aside, it is so wonderfully good, and it is a great reinforcement to find that something of lasting value has importance for more than just one's self. I always check back into the Forum dreading to find nothing but old messages and cobwebs, so it is grand altogether (as Doyler would say) to find Mr.--McGinnis, is it?---and his joyful appreciation. Good the know the book still brings tears to warm hearts and discerning minds.
>I am at present reading ASTW for the first time and
>I've just started chapter 9. I find myself resenting
>any interruption -- say work, cooking supper, or sleep
>-- that keeps me from the glorious pages of Jamie
>O'Neill's book. I've not felt this way about a novel
>for a very, very long time.So, many thanks Mr. O'Neill
>! I saw in the posts someone mention 'The Charioteers
>by Mary Renault, which excited me, as I have thought
>about that book a bit while reading ASTB. I read Miss
>Renault's book as a teenager and could only read a few
>pages at a time, being overcome by emotion and tears .
>I am pretty much back there right now in spirit. Being
>of Irish Catholic stock myself, ASTB has reminded me
>again of all the pains and joys involved in finding
>one's path -- the inner battles with what the Church
>teaches -- what my parents taught -- while trying to
>find love and acceptance. Maybe I'm not articulating
>my feelings that well today and maybe nobody will even
>see this post of mine, but I just felt the need to
>comment and to discover what others had to say about
>this grand book.

Date Posted:Sat, Feb 26 2011, 17:04:31 GMT
You should be by now well after ch.10 that is one of those I love best. Or perhaps you have already finished the novel.
Glad, really glad to hear from someone who has found in his heart a connection between AS,TB and Mary Renault's *The Charioteer*. I can think of no other book that moved me more than these two.
While there's an huge, most interesting archive of discussions about TC on livejournal.com (Mary's Handmaidens) it's months that nothing happens on *Pal O Me Heart's Journal* or in this forum.
How happy I would be if a real chapter by chapter (page by page?) discussion about AS,TB could start somewhere on the web.
Thanks for adding your voice to this almost silent list of JO'N fans.